TORONTO – Stephon Marbury has accepted the Knicks’ nasty fate of missing the playoffs and asked fans yesterday to be patient and view this season with a broader lens.

Because the Knicks’ crash coincided with an absurd amount of injuries, Marbury still looks at this season as setting the stage for a bright future.

“I believe we turned the corner as a team, as far as everybody being on the same page,” Marbury told The Post before the Knicks lost, 107-105, to the Raptors here last night. “Injuries just came at the wrong time. . . . That hampered our season.

“It definitely has been a roller coaster this year but it’s nowhere near last year,” Marbury added. “Going forward you could see the growth as a team. Everyone’s on the same page, gets along, there’s no B.S. It will make a world of difference.”

Marbury, for once, escaped taking the blame for the Knicks’ collapse, except for the pure Coney Island Kid bashers. Coach/president Isiah Thomas called it Marbury’s best season.

Marbury’s season certainly was fine off the court. He became a TV talk show host and is now known as such a basketball philanthropist that tonight HBO’s Real Sports will donate 15 minutes to a feature on his $14.98 Starbury sneakers, geared to low-income families.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done on the court or off the court,” Marbury said. “That’s something I’m most proud of because it changed lives.”

Thomas can’t say enough about Marbury’s growth on the court. After a horrendous November in which he looked as if he had lost a step and feuded with Thomas over his role as the Knicks stumbled, Marbury finally mastered all aspects of the game, becoming a consummate point guard and stout defender.

“His leadership, play and everything else was superb,” Thomas said. “I don’t think he’s had a better year that I can remember . . . Statistically, [it] may not look as good when he was [averaging] 20 [points] and 8 [assists]. From a pure basketball standpoint, it was probably the best basketball I’ve seen him play in this league.”

Marbury, averaging 16.4 points and 5.4 assists, and Thomas feuded early over the coach’s wish to have the offense revolve around Eddy Curry.

“I don’t think I’ve been harder on any player on the locker room than I was with him,” Thomas said.

Finally, Marbury bought into it, ending the disagreements with Thomas.

“Our relationship because of us being so close – it was hard,” Marbury said. “At the same time it was easy. Because I knew it was for the best what we were trying to do.

“I think I grew up a lot,” Marbury added. “At the beginning, I played a different role than I normally did. I think I transcended when I really started to understand what we were doing on the basketball court and making Eddy our first option. It allowed my game to grow.”

With two games left (tonight against the Nets and Wednesday at Charlotte), Marbury, suffering from turf toe, probably won’t suit up again this season. He missed his fifth straight game last night. But he’ll be on the tube after the season ends. His talk show, in its sixth week, continues Friday when he schmoozes with guest Adam Sandler. It has been a strange transformation.

“A lot of people have said ‘I never knew you were like that,’ ” Marbury said. “I’ve always been that way but I’ve been depicted in a certain way. I know who I am. Now having a show, people are able to see a different side of me.”

Marbury still feels stung by the darts he’s received from the media.

“People ask me, ‘Are you doing the shoe thing for your image?’ ” Marbury added. “There’s nothing wrong with my image. Everything that’s been said about me are by people who don’t know me.”